Chapter Text
The first thing Peter did when he set foot on Hale territory was take a deep, calming breath; he’d been gone for almost three years.
At first the decision for Peter to head down to Argentina had been a request of his sister’s. But after settling the urgent business, Peter decided he was needed down there more than he was in Beacon Hills. The Castillo pack was a friend of the Hales, they had been for generations.
When the hunters came lurking, the pack was wary, but they didn’t think it would turn out as badly as it did. Even the most peaceful of werewolf packs, the ones who’ve never hurt an innocent and are not inclined to do so, are never that comfortable with a hunter clan setting up shop in their back yard.
Sure, they say they have a code, but very few werewolves have seen it in action.
The Hales had their own trouble with hunters in the past. A few years before Peter went down south, the Argent clan moved into town. Things were tense for a while, but just like the Castillo pack, the Hales thought everything would sort itself out.
What they didn’t see coming was Kate Argent trying to burn them all alive. She’d failed, of course and she was currently serving a life sentence in a State penitentiary a few hours away.
Preventing the attack happened completely by chance. Peter had been up late one night, well past the normal time he went to sleep, and caught Derek sneaking back in.
Derek was fifteen at the time and had a curfew. Normally, Peter wouldn’t have bothered reprimanding him, he was closer in age to Derek than he was to his sister, Talia. Despite having gone to university already.
He’d only been back home from school for about half a year and was still reacclimating to family life. He was about to make a snide comment to his nephew about sneaking out when he got a scent off the boy. Several, in fact.
He could smell sex, and strong perfume, but the one that had his eyes glowing gold was the scent of Argent. Families all smelled alike in a way, though each person’s scent was unique to themselves. But they carried the same underlying notes that marked them as blood relations.
The last time he’d smelled that particular scent was when his soulmate had formally rejected him. He’d known the man was older, and had spent hours upon hours learning everything he could about him. He’d known he was a hunter, but he had truly believed they could still work. It was his soulmate after all. Surely, things like hunters and werewolves took a back seat when you met the person fate had decided for you.
Peter used to be a bit of a romantic.
But having done the amount of research on the man that he had, Peter was in a pretty good position to know that there was no one in the Argent clan Derek’s age.
The youngest was his soulmate’s sister, Kate. And she had to be at least mid-twenties by then. Much too old for his nephew. He grabbed Derek’s shirt, twisting the startled teen closer to him and shouted for Talia to get down there.
After that, things moved pretty quickly. They had a little bit of difficulty with Derek, but Marcus, his father, took him for a walk one day. Just the two of them. Peter didn’t know what was said exactly, but Derek came back with a red face and wet eyes.
There was no guarantee the woman meant more harm than molesting their son, but there was no guarantee she didn’t either.
They prepared for the worst.
Under the house were a series of tunnels. The basement led to one obvious one, but there were four more. Each of them went out from the house for miles and ended in hidden family vaults. The closest one was about ten miles behind the main house, while the furthest one was below the local high school.
Access to each tunnel, and access to each vault required the claws of a Hale wolf to open. It was an extra bit of security for them, and it was one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Hale family.
Derek swore he hadn’t told Kate.
Over the next week, the pack moved the valuables underground. They’d already heard of hunters burning pack houses down, and in some cases, blowing them up.
Derek’s older sister, Laura was away in college thankfully. But his younger sister, Cora was only in the fourth grade. She didn’t really mind though. In the short time Peter had been back, Cora had latched onto him like a little limpet. A limpet with claws.
If Peter said they needed to do it, Cora took to it like it was the next great adventure.
Peter, Talia, and Marcus had confiscated Derek’s phone as soon as he’d been caught. And after Derek had talked to his dad, it wasn’t hard for them to get him to send her a text saying that he’d gotten caught sneaking back in and was grounded for their entire break at school. And that his phone was probably going to be taken away.
Her only reply was to tell him to make sure he deleted their conversations before that happened.
When they had everything in place, they had him text her again, saying that he wanted to see her, and since there was a big family gathering that weekend, he might be able to sneak away.
She replied almost immediately. She told him that it was perfect. She said she had a surprise for him, and she couldn’t wait to see his face when she gave it to him.
Although Peter was incensed at her brazen attitude, it didn’t outright confirm her motives. If her sole motivation was to sleep with a fifteen-year-old child, that was disgusting enough, and Peter would see her dead or behind bars for that alone. If she was planning an attack, they were ready for her.
The outcome of that night didn’t end well for Kate. Peter lobbied for her death, and the death of her accomplices, but Talia said no.
They’d called the fire department and the police from their hiding spots in the forest as soon as they smelled the gasoline. Peter couldn’t kill her, but he could knock her unconscious until she could be arrested. Small wins.
Talia had come to stand over her with Peter after she and Marcus had done the same to the others. She looked up at the house, completely engulfed in flames by then. “Well, I wanted to remodel the kitchen anyway.”
Peter gave a silent laugh and side-eyed his sister before pulling her under his arm. Derek and Cora were safe in the tunnels, far from the house, and Marcus was tying up the bodies in case they woke up before the police got there.
After that night, they were able to broker a deal with the Argents that gave Peter a bit of breathing room from his former soulmate. He didn’t feel the pain of the rejection anymore, but the memories of that experience would be with him for the rest of his life.
The only acceptable recompense Talia would agree to take from the Argents was quite simple really: Get the hell out of Beacon Hills and don’t come back.
News had spread of what Kate had done, both to Derek and the fire. That, coupled with Gerard’s two-faced dealings at the summit a few years prior had left the Argent name in the dirt.
No wolves trusted any of their delegations, and the other hunter clans steered clear of their reputation.
The Hale pack, on the other hand, received an endless show of support as they rebuilt. They had allies spread out across the globe after that.
Which was why Peter had been down in Argentina.
In the years since the fire, Peter had fallen comfortably into the role as the Alpha’s left hand. He had a single-minded focus to the pack’s safety and expressed little remorse when that security was earned with blood.
While the Hale name was respected and admired among werewolves, the name Peter Hale was feared. Visiting packs always became a little more formal when he joined in on discussions. Talia teased him about it often, considering she was the alpha.
But Argentina saw a change to that.
He honestly hadn’t expected to be away that long. Getting the hunters out of their territory was a long drawn out affair, and by the time they’d succeeded, the Castillo pack requested his assistance for a little longer.
Their emissary had felt a black cloud headed their way, and Peter had worked with the man long enough to know his ‘premonitions’ were rarely inaccurate.
Seven months after things had settled down for the Castillo’s, the alpha pack came to town. They were smart, and ruthless, and alphas.
The Argentina chapter ended with the Castillo’s retreating to their extended family in Europe, the alpha pack down a member, and Peter as an alpha.
He’d never cared for Ennis much anyway.
He’d called Talia as soon as he was in his car driving north. He told her what happened, and she talked him through the power changes he would be feeling over the next month or so. She suggested he find a place to hole up in, ride out the settling. But he couldn’t imagine being away from his pack after that.
The rest of the alphas would be coming for him. He knew they would. He wanted his pack. And Talia agreed after she heard the worry in his voice that he should get home as soon as he could. They could prepare together.
He was relieved to say the least. His alpha still accepted him, even though he was one now too. And she and Marcus could join Peter in protecting the family. Marcus had taken over Peter’s role in his absence, and he had been doing a damn fine job.
Getting settled back in California was amusing to say the least. Laura and Derek were back from New York. Both having completed their college aspirations; Laura with a Masters, and Derek with a Bachelors.
Laura was jealous of Peter for the first few days. She was being trained as the alpha’s heir, and wasn’t pleased that Peter had gotten there first.
Derek didn’t really care one way or another, but Cora was over the moon excited. When they told the kids about his new status, Cora had jumped off the couch and threw herself at Peter for a hug, shouting, “Oh thank god!”
As soon as she released him, she turned to her mother and declared, “I swear to god, if I have to pick a different alpha than you one day, I pick Peter.” She turned to look at Laura’s obstinate expression. “I’d rather go omega than pick anyone else.”
Before the girls could get into an argument, which happened more often than not if they were in the same room lately, Talia redirected their attention to the threat headed their way.
They gave the kids a crash course on the alpha pack and its members, and Marcus added a bit about a threat already on their doorstep.
There was a rogue in the woods. So far, it had only attacked wildlife, but it was considered dangerous and they wanted them all to be careful. There was reason for Marcus to believe it might be a feral alpha.
Talia hadn’t been kidding when she told Peter she was worried for his adjustment to the alpha power. Many wolves cracked under the weight. Peter had been handling it fine, but she was keeping an eye on him just in case.
With the updates over, Marcus and Peter got ready to head out to patrol the preserve. He’d been unsuccessful tracking the rogue before, but the two of them together might have better luck.
And they did.
They were closing in on it when they heard a scream up ahead, then another one. They quickly made their way closer, but Peter pulled his brother-in-law down hard when he saw streams of flashlights in the direction they were headed.
They crept closer while staying low, and watched several deputies checking over two teenaged boys.
“Isaac!” they heard one of the men call out as they watched him rush over to the kids. “What are you doing out here? Are you hurt?”
The boy was clutching at his side and he gestured to the other one who was doing the same. “We heard there was a search party and wanted to come help.”
“You mean you listened in on my phone call and heard there was a body in the woods, and came to check it out,” the man shot back, but was smiling at the boy and pulling him in for a hug. “Are you okay? Both of you? Why are you two holding your sides like that?”
“There was a dog!” The other boy spoke up. “We heard growling and then it knocked us down and bit us.”
The man looked concerned now, lifting the first boy’s shirt so he could see the wound.
“Hey is it true you only found half of the body?” the second boy asked.
“That’s not something you should be talking about,” he told them both in a stern tone. “Come on, lets get you to the hospital to get those checked out.”
“No! We can’t go there, my mom’s working tonight.”
The deputy, or sheriff, as Peter heard the other deputies call him, chuckled as he put an arm around both of them and led them away. “And that’s something you should have thought about before you came out here tonight. As well as the giant rabies shot I’m going to have her give you when we get there.”
Peter and Marcus turned away as the boys were grumbling and the sheriff was laughing. They had a wolf to catch.
When they find him and see the eyes flash red, Peter offers the kill to Marcus. “We need all the help we can get right now,” he tells him.
He called Talia to come meet them in the woods afterwards and they both got Marcus back to the house and underground in case things go poorly. Talia was pissed at Peter at first, but her husband assured her it was his choice.
“We don’t have time for this,” Peter said as he got up to head back out. “Marcus, fill her in on the details.”
“What are you talking about?” Talia asked, shocked Peter would leave after what just happened. “Fill me in on what?”
Peter gave her a cold look, one she was used to seeing on his face when he was fixing a problem for the pack. “The alpha bit two teenagers in the forest tonight. They’re fine, but they’re at the hospital. I need to see if they’re turning.” He let out a sigh and turned back to Marcus. “Get some sleep. If you haven’t gone crazy yet, you’ll be fine. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
The good news was the full moon had been a few nights prior. So if the boys did end up turning, they’d have almost a month to get them ready.